Date: Mar 28 2003Major: Sociology (This Major's Salary over time)I have mixed feelings about NU. NU is the type of place where students go if they did not get into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc but would be in the honors program at a state school. They are also students who applied into all state schools but "just see" if they can get into NU. Bear this in mind when applying to NU.

The ONLY reason I stayed at NU was because of my majors. The soc professors are pretty inaccessible, but there are a few who TRULY care. My other major in women's studies was amazing. It was small and focused on critical thinking skills. The key to NU is to find those caring professors and tolerate the others. It was a top program and I can go to almost any grad school now and do fine.

As a student of color, I found that the university was unsupportive of "minority issues"—black and Latino students get into NU yet transfer out at a rate higher than white students. The gains for minority students were superficial in nature. (Yeah, they recruited minority students but then did not fly them out for free, like many other schools of a similar budget.) However, as a minority, there are NUMEROUS opportunities for fellowships, summer programs, etc. Once again, I had to proactive to find them.

NU is a nice combination of a small school and big school in terms size, offerings of classes, and resources. What made NU experience worthwhile is that Chicago is an amazing city. I volunteered in Chicago, did internships there, could take the train everywhere I needed, and even clubbed in the city.

Financial aid is great as long as you gain rapport with one or two advisors. They need to know your history, your issues, and the "loopholes" in financial aid. If they don't offer enough aid, CONTEST IT!!!!!! I always got more money because my advisors knew what to tell me to write in my letter to contest and, more importantly, what NOT to write.

FINALLY, I took advantage of studying abroad at NU. Seriously, this is one of the best things I ever did in college. The study abroad program at NU was amazing. They worked with me, my crazy financial aid, and my nutsy class schedule. They have rapport with the heads of programs across the world. In addition, NU allows you to get the credits from abroad but one does not get the grades applied to GPA (because NU does not trust the academic rigor of programs abroad). This allowed me chill out abroad and to enjoy my experience.